We all have to go to school. We learn many things throughout the course of a school year, yet some things are just totally useless and we waste time on them. Many times a day in math, I ask myself: When will we get a problem in life that requires you to solve: x^2 + 8x + 16 = 0 Seriously, when will we ever use this in real life? No one is going to use this in real life! And of course there is Social Studies... History mainly. Why do we need to learn about history when it has already happened! We will never use this in real life. "Hey guys, I'm going to use George Washington's battle strategy to win this paintball fight!" ... And of course there is science... We do use science but some stuff is just useless. Half of us won't be astronomers or chemists but we need to know about space and periodic table... Overall, the amount of wasted time adds up. We could be learning about something we will need to know in life, but instead we learn something entirely useless that we will never use in real-life!
We learn history so we know what people who lived before us did wrong, and what we should learn from them. We will us it in real life, mainly because history repeats itself. You know why we study about Hiroshima and the Holocaust and all that good stuff? Not so we just get annoyed over it or anything, but it's so that nothing like that happens again. And people are going to want the truth about what happened, and they'll turn to history. Whether or not you consider all that a waste of time depends on what you want to do in life. If you want to go to college and get a decent job, it's not a waste of time. But If you don't want to go to college and end up in a dead end job, go straight ahead. Screw school.
Ok first, most math anyone ever takes has almost no purpose because they never learn enough to see the value. The few that do provide us with the modern world. If you chose not to teach math at all (besides basic additiona and multiplication) we wouldn't have much in the way of technology or atleast we would stagnate if we suddenly didn't have anyone in a specific generation that new enough math to apply it to the modern world. History has less direct value than the technical sciences but it still definetly has value, in that it helps us learn from our past mistakes, and to help make people aware of the world around them so they can try and make informed decisions on things. In short, if you can't see the value in a technical science, you don't know enough, anf if you can't see the value in a social science you have been living under a rock and most likely are going to keep on doing so. P.S. this is directed at the OP, wick hadn't posted yet when I started typing this.
I asked the same thing from myself but with literature. From the very practical point of view on life, literature has absolutely no value at all. But when you get older and start to socialise at a more advanced level (i.e., not just friends and hanging out but building connections, going to job interviews, etc.), a new thing will start to play an increasingly large role in your life, and that is general knowledge. This includes literature, history, and pretty much all other humanities fields, at a certain extent. Of course, like Wlck said, if you're not into higher education and you don't want to keep stepping up that certain ladder but rather choose a path towards menial or other work where not much brain is needed, then you are right - all the subject you're not interested in are wasted time. But you can't do nything about it. ps if you're really 12 then don't worry - your reaction is natural
You will not get a mathmatical problem like that in reality, but the ones that you do will require you to be able to do things like that. The understanding of basic Algebra(like your math problem) is required to be able to learn Trigonometry, the use of trigonometric functions to accurately find the sides and shapes of different objects. The understanding of trig, in turn, is required for Calculus, determining graphs to find how things like speed and position relate to eachother. Basic understanding of Calc and Trig is needed to learn Physics, the study of objects and the forces of nature applied to them. Without the understanding of Physics, human's would never have been able to build buildings more than a few stories tall, learn how to create realistic video games, or get objects out into space. In otherwords, the things you're learning now may seem irrelevant to the real world, but they are actually the building blocks needed to understand the things that do apply to the world.
I mean, I have nothing wrong with Language Arts/English class and I know that we will use it everyday. Math, we will probably only use the basic things and maybe some advanced things, but say you have a job at McDonalds... The manager asks you: I have $20.50 someone gave me to buy 7 hamburgers and 2 whoppers. How much does the hamburger and whopper cost? Now, you know in real life that will not happen! Science we need but some aspects we don't. Social Studies, sure I understand why we need to know, but truth is, we will never use most of that knowledge. Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean in 1492. Hooray... The Romans had a leader named Julius Caeser. HOORAY!
History is extremely important for people who are going into non-technical/non-science careers. For instance, my main area of study is Political Science with an emphasis International Relations mainly dealing with ethnic conflict, insurgencies, terrorism, and regional crises. I have read books on the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, the anti-Japanese rebellion in the Philippines during World War II, the history of Afghanistan between the Soviet invasion to the fall of the Taliban following 9/11, the Boer War, various intelligence missions throughout history, the history of eastern fighting tactics, and even books on each year of the current Iraq War from 2003 to 2007. All of this history is extremely useful to me for my area of study. While you may not use every little piece of history that you learn some of them are interesting stories that you can tell people. High school is meant to show people a broad range of topics so they can discover what they are interested in anyways. Also, the more knowledge that you can retain, the more interesting of a person you are. I can talk about a wide variety of topics because nobody likes someone who just talks about the same thing all the time. As for math, for the test I took for the Navy there was basic math up to Algebra. You don't need anything past that unless you are doing technical or science careers.
The main idea of taking useless subject is to shape individuals. Employers love people who are well rounded in different areas. Why? If a problem occurs, a person who is educated enough will probably apply their useless knowledge to help solve the situation. So I agree, we DO learn useless things at times, but it helps build character. Sure, I complain every now and then about how I have to learn logarithms and complex equations, who wouldn't? (math majors). Also, general education can be thought of as a recruitment to a certain field of work. You may want to be a doctor, but after being forced to learn about history, you decide to be a historian of some sort. It all depends on what happens and you perceive your education. After all, if your accomplish a task you hate, imagine how capable you will be in the future in the work field, or even better, a job you love
The ancient Greeks had a concept of the "whole man." This was a man that was well-rounded physically and mentally in all fields of knowledge. Later this idea would be known as the Renaissance Man, when this quality becomes important to people again in Europe after the Middle Ages. Our educational system goes all the way back to this. The world would be a different place if everyone was only concerned with what he needs to know to survive. Advancements in science are only possible because most of the general public has an interest in understanding the universe, as they are almost always the ones who fund research. If you were a scientist, why would you even bother to waste your life if anything you find will be ignored by everyone? As for history, millions of people fought and died to shape the world into what it is today, be it wars or some sort of social reform. If people don't take the time to understand these important events then these people's sacrifices become insignificant. Let's say that tomorrow your country tries to become a totalitarian government, and you are one of the thousands of people that stand against it. Wouldn't it be nice to know that some day in the future, kids will be learning about what you were apart of that greatly shaped their lives? Or they won't even acknowledge your efforts, because they will only be trained to understand what they absolutely need to know to do their specific job. As far as the other subjects go, think back to what it means to be a whole man. There will be plenty of people who won't bother to educate themselves. They will only want to know what they need to know to do what they do day-in and day-out. Public schooling forces kids otherwise and academia encourages people otherwise by offering the best jobs to whole men. By the way, Did you know that he is the reason you follow a calendar that contains 12 months in a year? July is named after him and August after his successor (Augustus) because they were pretty important people. That's why October and December are the 10th and 12th months of the year though their prefixes suggest otherwise. Ancient history can teach you where and why a lot of the words and ideas you use today came about, like your system of government (democracy) and tons of other things.
School is about learning to cope with akwardness, to cope with assholes in a common enviroment, and general life experiance.
I agree, although I'd rather have a bunch of kids wasting time on becoming intelligent, then a bunch of kids overusing computer games and dumbering down by the second...
Not a day goes by where I don't use something I learned in a history class, and about three times a week I apply stuff I learned in my Classic Military Strategy class. I never cared for math, but History is immensely useful, at least for me.
I don't get bored from going to school. I mean, the classes are interesting, but I don't see the use for the things we learn.
